Eircom challenges ComReg succesfully

niallb

Just came across this last night.
Could be tough for UTV etc. if it drags on.
They're sorta obliged to sell at a flat rate
something they're not getting at flat rate.

Those tethered barrage baloons are looking better and better.

ComReg, Eircom facing court battle
June 4, 2003

Eircom challenges ComReg

Eircom has been granted a stay on a decision last week
by the telecommunications regulator, ComReg,
to impose a flat fee for access by competitors to its fixed domestic lines.

Eircom had complained that the fee set by ComReg would mean an annual loss of €3m for the company and would hinder its ability to invest in its network.

ComReg's decision will now be challenged by Eircom in the High Court on June 23.
If Eircom fails, it has undertaken to reimburse competitors who would have benefited from the new charge which was to have been introduced this week.

ComReg said it was disappointed at Eircom's challenge, as the consequent delay would have 'significant implications' for competitors and for competition in the broadband sector.

The regulator said it would 'vigorously contest' the proceedings and defend the integrity of its procedures.

Link to RTE OnBusiness report

shinzon

Didnt i tell you people theyd be a **** up somewhere, well there it is in plain black and white


Regards

Shin

Lemming

Originally posted by shinzon
Didnt i tell you people theyd be a **** up somewhere, well there it is in plain black and white


Regards

Shin

Calm down Shinzon. This is classic eircom stuff. They've cooked their figures to make it look so bad. What they've probably done is looped off ALL internet-related income via dial-up and not added back what they'd make off FRIACO

Yes, it's something to keep an eye on. But it's not time to write the whole thing off just yet. Sadly it'll quite possibly mean FRIACO being further delayed which is something that this country really doesn't need at this point in time.

/meh shakes fist at eircom

niallb

Just got the paper.

Irish Times 5/6/2003
Mary Carolan
and Jamie Smyth

Eircom has secured a High Court stay on a decision by the Commission for Communi
cations Regulation (ComReg) to cut the cost which Eircom charges other firms to
use its local access network.

The stay was granted by the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, af
ter Mr. Paul Gallagher SC, for Eircom, gave an undertaking that if Eircom fails
in its forthcoming challenge to the reduction in charges, it would reimburse all
those who had in the interim paid amounts over and above the charges set out in
a directive of ComReg which was to have come into effect this week.

...snip...

Mr McRedmond (..commercial director of Eircom..) said ComReg had claimed that, d
uring the discussion process between Eircom and the regulatory body, there had b
een significant delays and a failure by Eircom to provide reasonable, consistent
and timely information. Eircom refuted those allegations "in the strongest possible terms".

He said decisions of ComReg were invalid in that they failed to allow Eircom rec
over its appropriate costs.

Electric News - In the papers

MarVeL

This is purely about the LLU isn't it? It shouldn't effect the FRIACO offer.

flav0rflav

Yes, as I understand, it is purely about LLU, and should have no effect on FRIACO.

The re-imburse bit is a laugh, there is practically no one using it, except Esat. They apparently think eircom court efforts will fail, as they've announed the reduced customer fees, and they don't like to use eircom as an excuse to their customers.

SkepticOne

Yes it only affects Esat and they only have 1000 unbundled lines, so even if they were all fully unbundled, it would cost Eircom at most 24,000 a year. In an article in the SBPost Esat said that a lot of these lines were were not full unbundling but were shared lines so the amout Eircom would lose would be even less. The court case will cost Eircom far more.

What I think Eircom are worried about is the remote possiblity that this 2 euro reduction may attract other telcos to unbundle lines and actually compete with Eircom.